Sugo Pasta in Manchester changes its name after legal wrangle with Glasgow restaurant

It is one of Manchester’s most popular Italian eateries. But now Sugo Pasta Kitchen has got a new name following a legal dispute with a similarly named restaurant north of the border.

Sugo has changed its name to Sud, meaning south in Italian, following a wrangle with Glasgow’s Sugo over the name.

Four years ago, the two popular restaurants, both named Sugo, became embroiled in a social media spat over use of the name. Now the Manchester restaurant will be known as Sud - despite setting up four years ahead of the Glasgow restaurant.

Sugo in Glasgow opened in 2019 while Sugo in Manchester has been in the city since 2015.

The issues seem to have stemmed from the fact that diners in Glasgow were visiting the Manchester-based restaurant’s website to view the menu and buy gift vouchers without realising they were on the wrong page.

In social posts in December 2019, the Manchester team wrote: “Beautiful people, epic city. Way too many of you peeps are landing on our website, looking at our menu, buying our vouchers and mistaking us for Sugo Pasta Glasgow - unfortunately for you folk it isn’t us.”

In a now deleted post, Sugo Glasgow said went on to explain their side of the story.

Sugo Glasgow’s owners, who also run popular pizza restaurant Paesano, trademarked Sugo pasta in 2017 - meaning the Manchester business has had no choice but to rebrand.

Posting the news on their Instagram page today (13 February), owners of the Manchester restaurants wrote: “Same us, same mission, same pasta kitchen. From today our new name will be Sud Pasta.

“We’re aware that we can’t stop any speculation, however, all we’ll say is that our home is in the kitchen, not the boardroom.

“We love our new name. We love what it stands for. We love our ‘A Southern Italian Pasta Kitchen’

“By the way, Sud means ‘south’ in Italian. More importantly, we’ve got a brand new menu format starting in March. The Sud pasta Spring menu. Love, light and appreciation. Michael and Alex.”

Customers joked in reply: “What's the betting that we'll still be calling it Sugo for years to come. Manchester institutions tend to retain their name... I still refer to Manchester Central as GMEX!”